From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan [book review]

Were it not for the Booker Prize I’m not sure I would have ever experienced Donal Ryan’s work.

He was long listed in 2013 with The Spinning Heart, winning The Guardian first book award the same year. Narrated by 21 victims of Ireland’s economic crash; it reveals the impact of the collapse of the Celtic Tiger on the inhabitants of an unnamed rural town. In my review I described it as “technically adroit … with pitch perfect characterisation.”

That same description can be equally applied to his latest novel, From a Low and Quiet Sea, which is on this year’s Booker Prize long list.

I thought it would be hard to beat The Spinning Heart but Ryan has done it with From a Low and Quiet Sea .

The cast of characters has been significantly trimmed. We’re now focused on three men all of whom have something missing in their lives: a Syrian refugee, a crooked lobbyist and a young man dealing with the heartache of a lost love.

Each man is given their own section in the novel.

Farouk is a doctor who escapes from Syria with his wife and daughter in the hope of finding a more stable, peaceful life in western Europe. Too late, they discover they have been duped and instead of being let to safety are left adrift at sea in the midst of a storm. Ryan apparently wrote this story after hearing a news report about a Syrian doctor who paid what he thought was a high-end smuggler to get him out of the country. Though short, this was an engrossing story in exquisitely evocative prose

They speak to each other through tunnels that extend from their roots . . . sending their messages cell by cell . . . If a tree is starving, its neighbour will send it food. No one knows how this can be, but it is . . . They know the rule, the only one that’s real and must be kept. What’s the rule? You know. I’ve told you lots of times before. Be kind.

The style and pace change markedly for section two which features Lampy, a young man who is pining after the girl he loved who dumped him when she went off to college. He works in a care home, occassionally driving the old inhabitants to their medical appointments. He lives with his mother and grandfather Dixie – a man who loves taking people in the pub down a peg of two. Lampy is frequently frustrated by the old man yet also loves him, feeling “ a strange thrill of pride. His grandfather was wicked; when he was in form his tongue could slice the world in two.”

And finally we get to John, a ruthless man involved in very shady dealings, who is full of remorse for long-ago relationship with a younger woman. He tells his own story through the medium of the confessional, revealing how his family life fell apart when his brother died and he became obsessed with a young woman he met in a bar.

At first it seems these stories have no relationship to each other. It’s only in the fourth – and final – section that they are drawn together in a way that surprised me. To say more would be to spoil the experience of this book for other readers.

From a Low and Quiet Sea is a brief book but it’s one that lingers in the mind. Every character has a unique voice, from melancholy to matter of fact confession but there is also humour – there’s a wonderfully funny scene on the bus where the old people grumble because the vehicle breaks down. It’s so good I’m tempted to read it again soon which is something that I rarely do.

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About BookerTalk

What do you need to know about me?
1. I'm from Wales which is one of the countries in the UK and must never be confused with England.
2. My life has always revolved around the written and spoken word. I worked as a journalist for nine years then in international corporate communications
3. My tastes in books are eclectic. I love realism and hate science fiction and science fantasy.
4. I am trying to broaden my reading horizons geographically by reading more books in translation

No! This was my first one by Donal Ryan. Have ordered The Spinning Heart. Can’t wait to read it. I’ve written a review about From a Low and Quiet Sea. I’m a novice a writing reviews but I’d be grateful (and ecstatic) if you were to read it. Thank you and happy holidays! 😊

I’ve only read The Spinning Heart, a book club choice which proved to be a good fit for our group. As an author, Ryan appears to have the ability to weave different ‘stories’ together in such a way as to make them feel very connected. It’s one of the things that struck me about TSH, and it sounds as if the same is true here, particularly given your comments on that final section.

You did a beautiful job in reviewing this, Karen. I was so afraid of giving too much away! The contrast between Farouk and Lampy was so marked, such outstanding writing. One of the things Donal Ryan did which impressed the hell out of me is to create each character so powerfully. That grandfather, with his mouth like a dump truck, and yet at the end, scooping his grandson up with such tenderness…I loved how it all wove together, and how Ryan didn’t take 500 pages to needlessly elaborate each element. I found it perfect in every way, and as I continue to plow through the Man Booker long list it remains my favorite.

I love how I number of books in the last year or two are focusing on the Syrian refugee experience. With all the craziness that Trump brings to the world, I think having fiction remind us of the atrocities that affect people individually is really important. Sort of like disrupting the news cycle and getting back to things that we shouldn’t have forgotten so soon.

Thanks for the link, Karen. I’m so glad you enjoyed this. I think you nailed it with ‘an engrossing story in exquisitely evocative prose’. I loved that grumbling scene too. You could hear them all so clearly!

Oh no, I huff and puff a lot when I see older people at the check out in front of me. They seem surprised that they have to pay and then spend ages getting the money/card out and then putting he purse back in the handbag and zipping it up. Chatting nicely to the attendant all the time. And meanwhile the queue is getting longer……..

This is sitting on the library pile at the moment and The Spinning Heart is scheduled for the Book Group in October, so I’m glad to hear how strongly you have been drawn to both. I’m pushing it a bit by scheduling another Irish writer for the reader’s group because we’ve had a plethora over the last year but when Ryan turned up on the Booker for the second time I thought we should explore his work.